Chapter 50
That afternoon.
Crimsonwood, Church of Light.
With the city still just a sprawling camp, even the Church of Light had to keep expanding. The offices provided for the Archbishop and Bishops were nowhere near as complete as those of a proper parish.
Still, small as it was, everything necessary was there.
When Archbishop Norias arrived to preside over the meeting, the hall the Church had prepared held a statue of the God of Light, religious carvings, and all the other required sacred furnishings.
Now, under the statue's gaze, every Awakened above Second-tier in Crimsonwood's Church of Light had assembled.
Archbishop Norias sat at the center, Bishop Honorius and Bishop Elydiana to his left and right.
Twenty-one Second-tier Awakened, Elise among them, sat in a circle facing the Archbishop and the two Bishops.
In the middle of the circle lay Anarias's lich body and the spoils Elise had recovered.
Moments earlier, the Church's High Clerics and Grand Knights had heard the reports delivered by Honorius and Elise.
After examining the lich body himself, Archbishop Norias had confirmed the staggering news.
The Death Sovereign had fully succumbed to forbidden rituals.
Crimsonwood Parish had already released message birds carrying word to the higher parishes.
Without question, the Church of Light would launch a full purge against Anarias.
Yet even under those circumstances, no one could help fixating on Elise.
Least of all Archbishop Norias.
He regarded her solemnly, and at last he sighed.
"Elise, I still recommend you go to the Academy of Light in the capital of Hesse. The Church keeps legendary powerhouses stationed there."
"I hope to temper myself through real combat," Elise answered, as always.
She knew perfectly well the Archbishop spoke out of concern.
But there was truly no need.
In the eyes of the Archbishop and the Bishops, Anarias was the Death Sovereign. Having revived, he was not cultivating from scratch—he was recovering strength he had already possessed.
Now that he had abandoned all moral restraints, that recovery would become terrifying.
Elise bore his mark. She had no business staying in a frontier territory like Crimsonwood.
But in Elise's eyes, Anarias was wonderful.
He'd been merely Senior Second-tier, yet the spoils he delivered outclassed what many ordinary Third-tier Awakened could offer.
Even if Anarias never came looking for her, Elise was already toying with the idea of looking for him once her resources ran dry.
"Elise, the Death Sovereign is extremely powerful," Norias pressed. "He advanced to the Sacred tier in Light Calendar 1197, completed his lich transformation, and achieved his first revival. Anarias is a supreme master of Fate magic."
The implication was plain.
She could not escape him.
If Anarias wanted to find her, Fate magic would light the way.
But he can't calculate the existence of the system.
Elise repeated the thought silently.
However mighty the Death Sovereign was, the system lay beyond his reckoning. Which meant he would misjudge her.
Besides—it wasn't yet settled who would be hunting whom.
The thought steadied her.
She met Archbishop Norias's gaze and said gravely, "Anarias has marked me. If I remain on the frontier, his influence on the human heartlands will be contained."
The hall erupted.
"Light above!"
"The Light never retreats!"
"God watches over us."
"Anarias must be purified utterly!"
The assembled Second-tier Awakened felt their blood stir.
It was inspiring.
It was also politically airtight.
Norias, meanwhile, very nearly died of frustration.
You are a nineteen-year-old High Cleric.
At ordinary High Cleric rank, you already cast Senior Second-tier spells.
You just led Second-tier teammates to kill the Death Sovereign at Senior Second-tier strength.
Do you not grasp the Church's attitude toward you?
Elise, you should not be putting yourself in danger. Study obediently at the Academy of Light, and Fourth-tier is all but guaranteed.
And by the time you reach Fourth-tier...
Perhaps the Church will have purified Anarias for good.
But Elise refused to place her Fate in anyone else's hands.
Her system demanded real combat to grind spell experience.
Once her skill levels climbed—forget the Death Sovereign. Even the Undying God might not be beyond reach.
So running was out of the question.
All Elise wanted was to convert resources into strength as fast as possible.
Reading the iron in her will—and boxed in by her politically flawless answer—Norias could only sigh inwardly and turn the meeting to practical matters.
The group that had cooperated with Anarias belonged to a faction within a large mercenary company; its members in Crimsonwood had already been arrested by the Church.
But nobles and native powers of the Kingdom of Hesse seemed to be tangled up behind the scenes. The Church intended to dig out the whole truth.
"I believe construction of the outer towns can be delayed."
"Barring mercenary companies from garrisoning towns is a sound idea."
"Only Awakened who believe in our god should qualify for noble titles."
"It's time to bring in more commoner believers."
Opinions flowed, each with its own logic.
This was Elise's first time attending such a meeting as a Second-tier Awakened. For now, she mostly listened.
Before dinner, Norias rendered his decision.
He adopted pieces of several proposals and bent the group's efforts toward investigating the forces behind the incident.
Only after the Church's major business was settled did Norias find time for arrangements concerning Elise.
First, he laid out the value of the spoils she had won.
Then his furrowed brow finally eased, and he said gently, "Elise, I forbid you from leaving the city before advancing to Senior Second-tier."
"Archbishop Norias, I need real combat to temper myself—"
The same answer as ever.
But this time, the Archbishop's stance was unusually firm.
"I will not allow you to leave the city."
Elise couldn't override the Archbishop's authority, so she inclined her head.
"As you wish."
Head bowed, she was very nearly laughing inside.
Senior Second-tier? Was that supposed to be hard?
For this one trip into the Pyreflame Woods, her earned Merits sat solidly at the Prime Second-tier level—the Church had assessed her at thirty-five Second-tier Merits.
In coin, that was three thousand five hundred gold.
More importantly, Merits could be exchanged for rare transcendent materials.
And Anarias had been obscenely rich.
His total assets exceeded one hundred thousand gold coins, and Elise's share alone would run to twenty thousand.
That money would not only wipe out her debts—the remaining ten-thousand-plus gold would comfortably fund her climb to Senior Second-tier.
And on the skill front, she already held Level 5 [Holy Light] and Level 5 [Holy Light Arrow].
For the near term, Elise needed exactly this: to stay quietly in the city and cultivate. Her growth was about to take a qualitative leap.
Archbishop Norias's restriction was, in practice, wasted effort.
She understood, too, that the restriction was born of care.
The Archbishop wanted her to face reality squarely—and then be persuaded to continue her studies at the Academy of Light in the capital of Hesse.
The others didn't see it that way.
Elise had just completed a Prime Second-tier-level mission and banked more than thirty Second-tier Merits. Keep that up, and her progress would snowball.
Now the Archbishop had cut that momentum dead and confined her to the city.
That was suppression.
As the assembled Awakened turned strange looks on Norias, the well-meaning Archbishop's face went stiff.
No...
Can none of you see that I am worried about her?
You ordinary Awakened, with your plodding progression, could never understand how much support a supreme prodigy like Elise can draw from the Church.
You have all misunderstood me.